Facebook Email Service Canceled Due to Non-Use

This week, Facebook axed the email service that many users didn’t even know existed.

The social network first launched its @facebook.com email service in 2010 and advertised it as a "Gmail killer" — a system that could wrangle Facebook messages, text messages, and email messages into one streamlined inbox and compete with Google's Gmail.

But the email system never really caught on, so Facebook will begin getting rid of it next month. Starting in March, all emails sent to a user's @facebook.com address will be forwarded to the account the person used to sign up.

"We're making this change because most people haven't been using their Facebook email addresses, and we wanted to make it easier to view all your emails in one place," Facebook said Monday in a message to users.

"When Facebook's email service first appeared, it was referred to as the 'Gmail killer.' After Facebook tried and failed to buy Snapchat in November of last year, it released a Snapchat knockoff called Poke. When Instagram started to blow up in 2012, Facebook bought it. Facebook's been taking its own messaging app much more seriously for the past few years, and it just bought WhatsApp for $19 billion."